John Feckenham

John Feckenham (1515-October 1584) was the last abbot of Westminster.

Biography
John Howman was born in Feckenham, Worcestershire, England in 1515, but he chose to take the place of his birth as his surname, the last clergyman to be "locally surnamed". He studied at Gloucester Hall, Oxford as a Benedictine student, and he returned to Evesham Abbey to pursue a monastic profession. In 1539, he obtained his bachelorate of divinity from Oxford, and his abbey was forced to surrender during Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries. In 1549, Archbishop of Canterbury sent Feckenham to the Tower of London, as Feckenham had previously served as a chaplain and a rector for the persecuted Catholic Church. In 1553, Queen Mary I of England had him released, and he became her chaplain and confessor. He also prepared Lady Jane Grey for death, but he saved Princess Elizabeth (the future Elizabeth I of England) from execution in the Tower of London. In 1556, he became Abbot of the reopened Westminster Abbey, serving as its last abbot. Under Elizabeth, he was offered the Archbishopric of Canterbury if he reformed, but he instead served as the last mitred abbot to serve in Parliament. In 1560, he was sent to the Tower of London for his opposition to Protestantism, and he was confined for 14 years. He died in Wisbech in 1584.